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Author Topic: HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem  (Read 10070 times)

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HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem
« on: February 20, 2009, 06:31:10 AM »
Hi Guys,

I have recently purchased  a miniature  3 axis CNC milling machine and I have not yet been able to use it. L
I have got to a stage where Mach3 communicates with the 3 axis stepper motor controller and the stepper motors make a ticking noise but the do not turn and kind of stay in one place while ticking.
I have done the wiring per instruction  and I have attached a copy of my XML file so you can see my software settings.
I have also attached  a photo of the machine which might help.
Here are all the other specs that I have:

-Working area:        300x200x60mm
-Machine material:  6061 aluminium
-Table size:            450x240x20mm
-Motion system:      ACME lead screw and hardened linear rail 4mm
-Rapid speed:         2m/min
-Cutting material:      Plastic,foam,hard wood, soft wood,circuit board, light aluminium
-1.4 A  1.8 degree 1 step -stepper motors for XYZ
0There are no limit switches on the machine
- I am using 1/8 macro stepping on the card for all axis
- all the stepper motors are connected directly to the leadscrews

The parallel  port setup for my motor controller card is:
PIN   SIGNAL
1   CP4 - 4th axis pulse
2   CP1 - 1st axis pulse
3   CW1 - 1st axis direction
4   CP2 - 2nd axis pulse
5   CW2 - 2nd axis direction
6   CP3 - 3rd axis pulse
7   CW3 - 3rd axis direction

10   DIN1 - switch 1
11   DIN2 - switch 2
12   DIN3 - switch 3
13   DIN4 - switch 4
14   CW4 - 4th axis direction

16   ENA- all axis enable
17   RLY - relay control

18-25   GND - ground


Can somebody please find the fault and reconfigure my XML file so I can just copy and past it and it will work as I am very frustrated after a week of playing with Acceleration and Velocity in Motor turning.
By the way I have calculated steps per unit to be 9600. As I.e. 200 steps in a turn and I have 1/8 step therefore: 200 x 8 = 1600 steps per turn  & have manually measured there to be  6 turns per inch I.e. 1600 x 6 = 9600. I don’t know if my measurements are correct but I know the screw lead is 4mm.

Thanks

Offline Hood

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Re: HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2009, 07:54:54 AM »
Try setting the Pulse width to 6 on the motor tuning page, if that doesnt help try Sherline mode, its on the Ports and Pins main page.
Hood

Offline Hood

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Re: HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2009, 07:56:28 AM »
Oh and if your ballscrews are 4mm pitch then that will be 6.35 turns per inch ;)
Hood
Re: HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2009, 10:12:45 AM »
Thanks for the hint Hood.  as the result  I have changed the ptep per unit to 10160. i have also activated the sherline mode but on my motor turning page the maximum for step or direction pulse is 5, what should i set them to?
Still no luck :(
Re: HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2009, 10:16:45 AM »
PS. I have set port 16 which is EN!(Enable all axis) to Output #1 on Ports and Pins. Maybe that is the problem??!

Offline Hood

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Re: HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2009, 10:45:45 AM »
Yes the enable would be needed, also if you have sherline enabled you do not need to set a pulse width. However I would at first try without setting the  Sherline mode. As for the 5 being max for pulse width I think you must be using an old version of Mach as if I remember correctly it can be set higher than 5 now.

Hood
Re: HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2009, 09:11:06 PM »
Cheers... Finally got it to turn!! I cant believe it's doing the road runner in front of my eyes ;)

Offline Hood

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Re: HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2009, 05:24:24 AM »
:)
Re: HELP! Stepper motors not turning!! Cant find the problem
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2009, 08:19:25 AM »
Baghali,

So was it the enable that was the problem? My problem sounds similar.

Hollye